Setting the Record Straight

A response to my family

Earlier this week, my brother Fred published a book in which he told an anecdote that shone a spotlight on our uncle Donald's cruelty. Most people are aware of this cruelty, but Fred illustrated just how deep it goes.

Fred’s son, William, who was born shortly after my grandfather’s death in 1999, suffered from life-threatening seizure and throughout his life has required extremely expensive care. In 2008 or 9 Fred requested that our aunts and uncles set up a medical trust fund. By 2018, however, they had grown tired of contributing to it. Fred met with Donald and when he explained the situation, Donald said:

“I don’t know. He doesn’t recognize you. Maybe you should just let him die and move down to Florida.”

There is no reason for anybody to doubt the veracity of my brother’s claim, but I think it’s important to bolster it. In June of 2018, my nephew William was in the hospital with a serious case of pneumonia. As far as I remember it, he was so ill doctors placed him in a medically induced coma. That month I visited my aunt Maryanne at her apartment on the upper east side and we had the following conversation:

Mary: [Fred] said, “It’s going to be a long recovery but [William’s] really tough.” I text him back, “I know he’s tough but I just wish he didn’t have to be.”

Maryanne: And, of course, the question I’d love to ask, but I won’t—I assume he has a normal life-expectancy, and I’m saying, “Oh, god, this would be merciful.”

Mary: I can only guess what was going though their heads. [He was] intubated, in a medically-induced coma, the ICU.

Maryanne: I don’t know, I just—I don’t know, they . . . I don’t think they’d agree with me but, it would be merciful.

Mary: You know, I just don’t think you can ever . . .

Maryanne: I mean, he has no quality of life.

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Two days ago, our cousin, Eric Trump chose to write this to his 4.5 million Twitter followers:

“It's disappointing that after decades of unwavering love, support, golf memberships, family vacations, and millions of dollars in support for his wonderful son, Fred Trump has decided to cash in less than a hundred days before an election. I have signed the checks and witnessed firsthand as my father and our family has provided endless financial support so that Fred's son could receive the best possible medical care to read this garbage and see that he has now followed his trouble, sister simply to earn a quick buck is disgusting, disheartening, and a prime example of no good deed goes unpunished.”

I typically have avoided making any reference to my cousins. As people I'm related to, they are completely irrelevant to my life personally. As an adjudicated business fraud and one of Donald's surrogates, Eric is beneath my contempt. I cannot, however, allow this statement to go unchallenged, not only because it is full of lies and misinformation, but because he's using his vast platform to punch down. His self-aggrandizing and vicious statement is quite frankly abhorrent.

If Eric had any self-awareness, he would have kept his mouth shut. If he had any sense of basic human decency, he would understand the bargain he's made and, at the very least, not attempt to pass off a blatant theft--from which he benefited--as an act of charity. But he's had very good teachers, and goes instead for the threat and the lie, while rejecting the truth and compassion, because like his father, he's weak and he's cruel in the way of small unaccomplished men

It is time for me to set the record straight.

My father died when I was 16 years old. Fred was 18. My Uncle Donald, my Aunt Maryanne and uncle Robert became our trustees. It was their responsibility to protect my financial interests. When my grandfather died in 1999, we learned that we had been completely disinherited. My grandfather’s estate was worth approximately $1 billion.

After Fred and I were unable to reach an agreement with my aunt and uncles, I told my uncle Robert that we intended to sue our grandfather’s estate. Less than a week after we started the lawsuit, the medical insurance that had been provided to me and my brother by Trump Management since we were born was cancelled. The only reason this mattered, they only reason they did it, was because my brother’s son, who had been born the day after my grandfather’s funeral a few months earlier, suffered from life-threatening seizures. His undiagnosed condition required round-the clock medical care.

My brother depended upon the insurance to pay for my nephew’s astronomical medical expenses. When William had first fallen ill, our uncle Robert had promised Fred that the family would take care of everything. Taking away our insurance, had been my aunt Maryanne’s idea. William was out of the hospital by then, but he was having seizures, which more than once had put him in a state of cardiac arrest so severe that he would not have survived without CPR. He still required round-the-clock nursing care.

The family all knew this, but they canceled our insurance anyway. Fred and I had no choice but to launch another lawsuit to force them to reinstate the medical insurance so at least William’s care would be covered. The suit culminated in an appearance in front of a judge. The Trump’s lawyer claimed that the health insurance was a gift that had been bestowed upon us out of the goodness of my grandfather’s heart. He also downplayed William’s condition, insisting that the round-the-clock nurses who were merely overpriced babysitters. If Fred and Lisa were worried that their infant son might have another seizure, he said, they should just learn CPR.

Almost two decades after my grandfather died, I learned that Maryanne and Donald and Robert had, through fraudulent means, stolen our inheritance which was worth tens of millions of dollars. If they had not done so my brother never would have needed to ask for their help in the first place.

My brother and I have taken very different paths, and I I have no special knowledge of my his relationship with the rest of my extended family, but there's certainly no reason for me to doubt his story. I will not doubt his motives. Because I know it is a hard thing to be outside of one’s own family and nobody should be judged for trying to be part of it, even if, perhaps especially if, it costs you a bit of your soul.

To my aunt Elizabeth, an extremely wealthy woman with no children, to my cousins Ivanka and Donny and Eric, to Maryanne’s son, David—you too benefit from the theft Donald and Maryanne and Robert committed. I don’t’ expect any of you to return our stolen property, but the very least you could do is return enough of it so my brother and sister-in-law can take care of their son with care or worry for the rest of his life.

I have no doubt my uncle Donald had a hand in Eric's statement and to him I would say, you do not get to steal tens of millions of dollars from your dead brother’s children and then, when you use some small portion of it to help out the victim of your theft get to pretend that you deserve anyone’s gratitude.